Khang Le's Lunch is just one of his sci-fi concept art pieces on display in The Art of Control-Z at Los Angeles' Gnomon Gallery.

Khang Le's Invasion

Khang Le's Dragon Boss

Khang Le's Red Lights

Khang Le's Hawkins

Khang Le's Forest

Khang Le's Dwarves Army

Khang Le's Dwarf Land

Jaime Jones' Checkpoint

Jaime Jones' Blood Snout

Jaime Jones' Hair Beads

Jaime Jones' Lookout

Jaime Jones' Progenitus

John Park's untitled

John Park's untitled

John Park's untitled

John Park's untitled

John Park's untitled

John Park's Circus

John Park's Circus

John Park's untitled

John Park's untitled

Scott Robertson's Sci-Fi Arctic Explorers

Scott Robertson's Sci-Fi Arctic Explorers

Scott Robertson's Military Issue

Scott Robertson's Military Issue

Scott Robertson's Big Red

Scott Robertson's Big Red

Scott Robertson' Powerslide

Scott Robertson' Powerslide

Scott Robertson's T-Mech 6

Scott Robertson's T-Mech 6

Steve Messing's Nest Interior

Steve Messing's Nest Interior

What prompts an artist to imagine alien worlds? For Khang Le, his fascination with science fiction art began when he saw the terrifying scene in RoboCop where a police droid sprays an executive boardroom with bullets.

“The scene where ED-209 massacres all the suits in that office was pretty brutal,” the 30-year-old artist told Wired in an e-mail. “I was only 9 at the time but that overwhelming mechanical power really stuck with me. I’ve been in awe of robots ever since.”

Le went on to teach at Gnomon School of Visual Effects, a Los Angeles trade school where artists hone their craft so they can land videogame and movie gigs, and is now creative director of mech-combat game Hawken.

He continues to imagine extraterrestrial environments for sci-fi concept art, some of which is on display in The Art of Ctrl-Z, an exhibit of fantastical works by movie and game artists who usually channel their creativity on behalf of someone else’s project.

Here, their imaginary constructs are presented as freestanding art pieces. One such evocative fantasy-scape is Invasion, an illustration Le created for ill-fated goblin game Project Offset.

“The giant ships are powered by giant trolls,” said Le, who cites Ridley Scott and Hayao Miyazaki as influences. “I wanted to exaggerate the scale so the ship designs are stretched vertically. I also added red sails to create a dramatic contrast against the overcast weather and dark gray ships.”